1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for electrically connecting the contact points of a first flat wire carrier to the contact points of a second flat wire carrier. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for electrically connecting the electric contact points of a first flat wire carrier having a first contact point pattern, such as a circuit board, to the corresponding electrical contact points of a second flat wire carrier having a second contact point pattern, such as an electronic testing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several adapter arrangements are known, often called "adapters" or "test jigs", including those arrangements described in "Patent Abstracts of Japan", Volume 7, No. 278 (P 242) (1423), 10th Dec. 1983, and in JP-A-58155374, 16.9.1983, and in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Volume 24, No. 7A, December 1981, pages 3342-3344. Furthermore, the contact arrangements are known as disclosed in GB-A-2156532, U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,120 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,756.
In addition, a contact arrangement is known consisting of a basic contact field or grid of the electronic testing device (not described herein in detail), attached to which is an active basic grid consisting of spring activated test pins arranged to correspond to the basic contact grid and contained in an insulated basic grid body, on which an adapter board is laid which is used to compensate for the locally raised connection densities of the test specimen (circuit board) and/or the sideways displacement (i.e. the displacement in the X and Y directions along the surface of the circuit board) between the regularly arranged contact points corresponding to the basic grid and to the not necessarily regularly arranged contact points corresponding to the test specimen. That is, the contact areas are arranged on one side of the adapter board to correspond to the basic grid of the testing device, and the contact areas on the other side of the adapter board are arranged to correspond to the arrangement of the contact points of the test specimen. Conductor tracts and plated through holes are provided in the adapter board to electrically connect corresponding contact areas on each side of the adapter board.
Vertically arranged, longitudinal spring activated test pins are provided on the side of the adapter board having contact areas arranged to correspond to the circuit board to be tested. These test pins, which establish contact with the surface of the test specimen, are pressed by a suitable pressure attachment.
The basic structure of the adapter boards described above correspond to the conventional printed circuit boards (PCB's). That is, the adapter boards described above are essentially rigid or semi-rigid boards made from an insulating material and, as indicated above, have electrically conducted areas on their top and bottom surfaces.
The above described arrangement, which is well known and available in the market, has a drawback in that a large number of spring activated test pins are required. These spring activated test pins entail a considerable investment on the part of the user of the test equipment. Furthermore, due to the necessary mechanical strength of the test pins, limits are imposed on their miniaturization, therefore establishing limitations as to the test pin density of the adapter board.
The above cited drawback to the conventional adapter board can be partly solved by making the contact between the side of the adapter board with contact areas corresponding to those of the test specimen and the test specimen itself by means of a so-called vertical conductor board. The vertical conductor board consists in principle of a panel of elastic insulating material containing finely distributed contact wires running vertically and parallel, and therefore insulated from one another and protruding from the surface of the vertical conductor board on the top and bottom sides. Although it is relatively easy to connect the adapter board and the test specimen using these vertical conductor boards, their manufacture is exceptionally expensive.